An electrically driven vehicle travels in such a manner that power supplied from a battery is used to drive a motor. A battery mounted in the electrically driven vehicle may be charged in such a manner that a connector of a charging cable connected to a power supply source in the outside of the vehicle, such as a normal charging facility or a fast charging facility, is connected to an inlet provided on the electrically driven vehicle. Such external charging may be performed with the vehicle being parked on a slope. In this case, when external charging is started without operating a so-called parking lock mechanism, the vehicle may move during the external charging, causing the charging cable to drop off during supply of power.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-233021 describes a charging system in which a battery mounted in the vehicle is connected to electrical equipment in the outside of the vehicle through a cable and which enables power to be supplied from the battery to the electrical equipment. In the charging system described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-233021, only in the case where the ignition switch is in the off state and where the shift range is set to the parking state, charging from the battery to the electrical equipment is started. Therefore, use of such a technique may avoid a state in which a cable drops off during supply of power.
In vehicles, many computers, such as a driving control module that controls a driving device including the parking lock mechanism and an external-charging control module that controls a vehicle-mounted charger, are mounted. When the ignition switch is switched off, these vehicle-mounted computers enter the sleep state or the idle state in order to suppress consumption of excess power.
In contrast, external charging of a battery is often started in the state in which the ignition switch is switched off. Therefore, in the case where the technique described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-233021 is applied to an external charging technique for vehicles, when external charging is started after the ignition switch is switched off, it is necessary to operate also the driving control module in order to check the operation state of the parking lock mechanism. Therefore, excess power for operating the driving control module may be consumed, or it may take time until external charging is started.